


Human

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Tanz der Vampire - Steinman/Kunze
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post canon, and Alfred remains interested in Sarah, but there are hints that Herbert remains interested in Alfred, not romantic - Freeform, rescued from ye olde livejournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 03:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18730858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: "You’re the most human vampire I’ve ever met, love,” Herbert told Alfred, running a thin finger down Alfred’s chest, in that insinuating way of his.





	Human

“You’re the most human vampire I’ve ever met, love,” Herbert told Alfred, running a thin finger down Alfred’s chest, in that insinuating way of his. 

Alfred was not in the habit of paying much mind to anything that came out of Herbert’s mouth, but this comment gave him pause. 

“How long have I been a vampire for?” he asked the count’s son, thinking that it must’ve been a year at least since his transformation. 

“What will you do for me if I tell you?” Herbert purred. 

Alfred sighed. He should’ve known that even asking a simple question would only serve to encourage Herbert. 

“Never mind,” he said, turning back to the book he had been reading. “It’s not important.” 

.;.;.;.;.

“Why Alfred, it’s been six years at least,” Sarah told him with a laugh, when he asked her later that day. Regrettably, she did not want any pleasant favors from him in return for the information.

“Are you sure?” Alfred asked. 

 

“Perhaps. It’s not very important at any rate. We might live to be a thousand! Counting every year will do nothing but make us feel old.”

.;.;.;.;.;.

Alfred _did_ think that it was important. That night he took out his little brown diary. There was dust on it. Had it really been so long since he’d written? He flipped through to his most recent entry. 

_I am a vampire._

Alfred flushed, something he was only able to do since he had fed recently. The sentence seemed so ridiculously dramatic, like something out of a cheap thriller, even if it _was_ true. 

He flipped to a new page, and began to write:

 

 _I don’t think I’m very human at all._

He hoped that would be something he could read later. He chewed on the nib of his pen absently, as he thought of what evidence he could use to back up this reflection.

_The things which used to comfort me as a human are the very things that I am most vulnerable to now. The things that comfort me now are those I was frightened of as a human -- blood…lust…the dark… They all seem very pleasant to me these days. On those long nights trudging through the snow towards Transylvania, I used to whisper the prayers under my breath, the very ones my mother taught me as a child. I can’t speak them now… I’ve tried, but the words make me feel so terrible and ill, and get jumbled out of order no matter how I strain to say them. I try to think them now, but I can’t. I wonder, is it enchantment, or have I really just forgotten?_

_It begs the question: How much else I have forgotten? I look on my former life the way a man might look on his infancy. I only remember the important things, like Sarah, but she’s here now anyway._

Alfred shut his book. He didn’t read over what he’d just written. Reading his own writing always made him feel stupid, and he already had the vague sense that his metaphors had been poorly and haphazardly laid out. 

Nonetheless, he resolved to write more in the future. Perhaps after those one thousand years, that Sarah told him not to count, he will have have forgotten enough to be detached from his old scribblings, and to need them.


End file.
